Chris Jericho Discusses AEW's Booking Weaknesses, Comedy In Wrestling

Chris Jericho has spent the majority of his life working in the wrestling industry. After a surprising move to AEW when the company launched in 2019, he became the first-ever AEW World Champion at AEW All Out 2019 when he defeated "Hangman" Adam Page. He would eventually on to lose the title to Jon Moxley at Revolution earlier this year.

Appearing on Konnan's podcast (Keeping It 100) this week, Jericho spoke about a multitude of topics. Perhaps most interestingly, he talked about ways AEW can improved and acknowledged some of the company's weaknesses so far in booking.

"Everything isn't always good," Jericho acknowledged. "We have a lot of details that sometimes slip through the cracks. We still have quite a few times when very similar angles will happen one after the other. An example of that was a few weeks ago when the big question was if MJF would join The Inner Circle. I think there was a town hall when Bischoff was asking the questions. As soon as we were done, we went to a package where Taz was asking if Hobbs will join Taz' team. In the production meeting, I said, 'guys, how can that even be?' It's the exact same thing and they didn't notice that.

"I said, 'maybe we should use that package somewhere else and in the future. Let's not use the word join for Will and Taz.' Let's say 'Are you going to come with us? Are you going to work with us? Are you going to be part of our team?' Will MJF join The Inner Circle was the tagline for our PPV match, therefore any other joinings should be suspended for this duration. That's just common sense but sometimes those things fall through the cracks. I would like to see a little more attention to detail."

Konnan followed up by asking Jericho who writes the shows.

"We don't have writers and we are very proud of that fact," Jericho said. "I book all my stuff. I think QT Marshall takes all the ideas for the week and then he formats the show. It's always about the opening quarter, the cross over quarter and the final quarter. Tony decides where he wants that and then QT shapes up the rest of it. Tony then goes through it. It's a weekly collaborative process for sure."

Konnan wondered if Jericho thinks he is doing too much comedy. He memorably just had the dinner denonair musical segment with MJF, which he discussed.

"My feuds always have heat," Jericho said. "They always have a beginning, a middle, and an end and it's always planned out accordingly. Sometimes you might have to wait, but isn't that what great storytelling is? I'm not the booker for anybody. I'm the booker for myself. I don't have creative control. I did it with the whole Moxley story. I did it with the whole Cody story. I did it with the whole Orange Cassidy and now with the whole MJF story.

"I think Moxley was 12 weeks and Cody was 10 or 12 weeks and we could have probably gone longer with that one. In order to have a story, there has to be ups and downs. The original idea and the original connection between MJF and I is the comedic element because they are very similar characters. There is a lot more to this and the idea is to make everybody a much bigger star coming out of it than they did going in. At this point in my career, all I'm about is entertaining and being creatively stimulated and not doing the same old same old.

"I also came up in wrestling with '80s WWF. Yes, we loved Andre and Hogan. Yes, we loved Steamboat and Savage. Don't forget that Steamboat and Savage was based all around George 'The Animal' Steele, the most ridiculous character of all time. There was Vince McMahon singing Stand Back with Hulk Hogan playing bass in the background. I love that stuff. I always did and Vince loves the stuff. So, I'm like, let me try some stuff. The song and dance routine, I wouldn't do that with anybody, that was MJF's idea by the way. The guy was a childhood prodigy. He's been singing and dancing since he was five years old. If there was ever a time to try it, let's do it. Are we going to do it every week? No. Is it something people will always remember? Yes."

H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcript.